ELLEN, OR THE VISIT OF THE ROD. 239 ELLEN, OR THE VISIT OF THE ROD. BY CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. This narrative paints in true colors, the evils of the union of a believer, with an unbeliever. Her entrance into the married state is thus described: "She thought that nothing was deficient in him to form an exalted character but true religion, of which she felt conscious he knew nothing. Yet there was such a pliancy and gentleness, such a tendency to all which is good, that she thought, "May I not be the means of winning him over to the things of God?" Still the word of God, with which she was well acquainted, clearly forbade the union. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbe lievers," &c., was a barrier which her mind could not surmount. She knew that others had violated it and yet were thought christians still. She mused and hesitated; conscience told her she ought to break off the acquaintance, but the conflict had now begun with inclination. She could not pray as before, with the simple desire to know and follow the will of God, and the inward tumult made the attempt irksome. She relaxed in the endeavor; and though she ceased not to pray, yet it was now with a confusion and formality which sometimes told her all was not well within. The parley with temptation advanced till her own affections became entangled; and what with the assiduity of her admirer, and the urgent pressing of her aunt, and other connexions, the affair was hastily concluded, and Ellen became the wife of Mr R., before she well thought what she was doing. "Ellen Ras we must now call her, was soon undeceived as to the hopes with which she had quieted conscience before her marriage. Her house, which she had fondly thought to preserve like the dwelling of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, where Jesus oft resorted with his disciples, presented no token of being graced with his presence, or of being ennobled with his blessing. There was no public altar for God, where the morning and evening sacrifices of prayer and praise were offered by the inmates. Family prayer was out of the question with a master who was insensible of its duty, and undesirous of its accompanying influence-who thought this delightful service to belong only to the ministers of religion. The day began as if they had nothing to do with God; so it passed throughout, and so it closed. Ellen sometimes mentioned it with desire to her husband, but every allusion to the holy practice was answered with some general evasion, some playful banter on "the nun-like purity, and the recluse habits which the gentle devotee had received in her solitude, and which should now be exchanged for conformity with the practices of social life." When she sought to discourse more seriously on these topics, she found the subject was irksome to her husband, and was obliged to suffer the conversation to be diverted into some other channel; indeed, on all other points it was so interesting, that before she was aware, her mind was engaged on matters more congenial with his taste, and the subject dropped. Thus repeatedly foiled in the attempt to engage his thoughts on religion, the effort was more seldom renewed, and at length it ceased for awhile altogether, in a kind of understood, though not expressed arrangement, that each was to pursue unmolested, the course most agreeable to inclination." |